South - South Return Migration: Challenges and Opportunities

In this background note, the ACP Observatory on Migration assesses return migration in a South-South context, proposing return definitions, typologies and trends as well as a summary of current policies and best practices.

This Background Note provides a concise overview of the process of South–South return migration.

  • The first section focuses on the definition and background regarding the topic of return migration and provides different typologies of return migrants based on the work of Gmelch (1980).
  • The second section  provides an overview of return trends in ACP countries.
  • The third section discusses the concept of sustainable return and reintegration in countries of origin and provides an overview of current policies and best practices.
  • The last section describes the types of impacts of return migrants on their countries of origin and the background concludes with a list of policy recommendations for ACP and other countries.
Publication Date:
Mon 25 Mar 2013
Geography:
Main theme:
Keywords: